Fake SF doctor who duped patients into plastic surgeries loses appeal

In this undated photo provided by the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, Carlos Guzmangarza, 49, is shown. Guzmangarza, accused of performing a botched cosmetic procedure on a woman while posing as a doctor, has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges. Prosecutors say Guzmangarza ran the Derma Clinic in the city's Mission District, using the stolen identity of a physician's assistant. Under the fake identity, he allegedly performed a liposuction in 2010, during which he smoked a cigar and asked the conscious patient to hold the IV bag. (AP photo/San Francisco District Attorney's Office Via The San Francisco Chronicle)

Photo: San Francisco district attorney / Associated Press

The state Supreme Court has denied the appeal of a San Francisco man who posed as a doctor and was convicted of assaulting nine patients, and sexually abusing two of them, in his fake medical clinic.

Carlos Guzman Garza opened his Derma Clinic in the Mission District, using the stolen identity of a Central Valley physician, and told patients he was a plastic surgeon.

Nine women testified that he had performed medical procedures on them, including surgery. One said he had smoked a cigar while performing liposuction in 2010. She later needed corrective surgery when her abdomen became infected.

Several women said he sexually assaulted them. One said he gave her pills and attacked her while she was incapacitated. Another woman said Guzman Garza told her the sexual contact was a necessary part of her skin treatment.

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His appeal challenged the assault convictions on the grounds that the women had consented to physical contact, although their consent was obtained by fraud.

“He induced women to consent to these quote-unquote medical procedures and performed the procedures they consented to,” John Schuck, a court-appointed lawyer for Guzman Garza, said Thursday.

The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejected the argument in January.

“Guzman Garza’s victims agreed to have medical procedures performed by a person they understood to be a licensed physician who was qualified to perform them,” Justice Peter Siggins said in a 3-0 ruling upholding the felony convictions.

“Instead, they were subjected to dangerous surgeries and other physically invasive procedures performed by an individual lacking any of the qualifications required for the practice of medicine,” Siggins said.

He said the women’s consent did not give Guzman Garza “free rein to perform unlicensed medical procedures with impunity.”

On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court unanimously denied review of Guzman Garza’s appeal.

Bob Egelko has been a reporter since June 1970. He spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasionally sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal affairs in San Francisco from 1984 onward. He worked for the San Francisco Examiner for five months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.

His beat includes state and federal courts in California, the Supreme Court and the State Bar. He has a law degree from McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage has included the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, the appointment of Rose Bird to the state Supreme Court and her removal by the voters, the death penalty in California and the battles over gay rights and same-sex marriage.